Wondering why there's so much hate for teachers?

[Nannyogg134]

I've just been reading some responses to another thread concerning teachers and working over summer and there's a real mix of thoughts. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I'm always very taken back by the amount of negative comments regarding teachers (especially regarding workload and school holidays.)

I've taught in a state secondary school for almost 13 years and I came to the job after working in a care home for a few years. There are pros and cons; the school holidays are great (and yes, they are unpaid- teachers are paid per day of their contract, this is term time only, the wage is delivered over 12 monthly payments for ease of life.) However, there is no flexibility, so I rarely see my own children in sport's day, nativities, or even on parent's evening (if it clashes with something at my school.) Overall, I feel very passionately about giving my best to my students and extra time I spend on them feels mostly worthwhile.

However, whenever there is chat about teaching, the general feeling seems to be very negative. I'm just wondering where this seems to come from? Is it the classic 'horrible teacher' stereotype we see on TV etc.? Or is it a leftover from some of our own school days?

I suppose it's not really AIBU, more of a wondering where this issue comes from and if public view can ever be shifted?

I do not know anyone who only works a 35 hour week as full-time. And I am not as well paid as teachers.

"I think teachers moan so much more than ANY other profession. It gets peoples backs up sometimes."

SOME teachers. Essentially it's the generalising about anyone that annoys me more than anything else.

I have lots of teacher friends and they all work very hard. It’s an important job which has to be done. But they certainly don’t work harder than myself or my other non-teacher friends. They also get decent salaries, pensions and of course the holidays (yes, they do some work in the holidays but still get plenty of free time to spend with their families).

On Mumsnet it just seems to be teachers moaning about how hard they work, how much harder they work than others and how little they get paid for it. They seem to have no understanding that actually their job isn’t harder or more hours than many other jobs, and compared to others they do get decent salaries when you take into account the pension and holidays.

The other annoying thing is when some teachers moan about hitting the top of their pay band with no room to go up unless they take on more responsibility. We’ll yes, that is the same everywhere. You have to want to step up into more challenging roles with more responsibility to get the higher salaries. If I had chosen not to take on more responsibility at work and not worked towards that then I would still be in my £30k role.

That's true, but teachers don't get paid what surgeons do. I think the problem is that teaching holds a lot of responsibility, demands a lot skills and is mentally exhausting as you are dealing with so many people and also managing their expectations and problems all day long.

As others have said, on MN it’s the moaning. Not all but so many moany teacher posts. Nobody has ever worked long hours or taken work home or has to deal with difficult situations in their job. Some of my friends are teachers and they aren’t like this, yes it is a hard job but so are thousands of other jobs.

Lots of jobs do not get paid what surgeons get paid and have a lot of responsibility and lots of stress.
Your response is a perfect example of why so many people get annoyed with teachers. Your response seems totally ignorant about other jobs.

I've got no strong feelings pro or against teachers, but certain things repeated ad nauseam on these boards do get tiring: no other profession is as hard or stressful, school is not childcare, if a child complains about the teacher then the child must be lying. During the pandemic I've heard that teachers can't teach online/provide teaching materials because they've got their own children at home - so like the rest of us then who had to work from home with children around.

It's a free for all here for abusing certain professionals, wc, people on benefits,
smokers, obesity, refugees.

I think teachers are brilliant and deserve more resources to work with.

I think a lot of people secretly think they could be a teacher because they have kids and don’t see how different it could be to having your own kids

Hate is not the right word. I think you mean dislike

Yes this. Teachers should not be paid the same as surgeons. Teachers work hard and have lots of responsibility, but so do many, many other jobs.

I wish someone would actually share a link where a teacher says they work harder than anyone else. It's an accusation that's thrown lots but I've never seen it. I've seen teachers explain how hard they work and then be accused that they think they work harder than anyone else when they never said that at all.

Agree with everyone. It's because teachers moan as if they are the only people with difficult jobs. And also because everyone else moans as if being a teacher is easy. Of course neither is true.

This!
I always see so many comments about teachers moaning but whenever I see teachers discussing, salary/hours etc it’s usually in defence of themselves or to correct misinformation.

@Putonyourshoes have you seen the comment above about how teachers do not get paid as much as surgeons?

This! Teaching is a tough, and they do a fantastic job. But my god can they be negative.

Majority of my friends who are teachers do nothing but moan about how hard they work, the hours, the posts on Instagram about having to work late for parents evening. The belittling remarks about how they work so much harder than the rest of the population.

It is hard to stomach when I work 50 hours weeks most weeks, only get 4 weeks holiday a year, and have significantly less job security and other perks.

That said, I have 2 friends who converted to teaching after having children. They love their jobs and are rarely negative about teaching.

Of course teachers don't get paid the same as surgeons. Where has anyone said they should?

I also think that often people going into teaching who don't really want to and never planned to. They just fell into it because they couldn't get other jobs.

Literally, ALL the kids of our immediate neighbours are now teachers. That's two kids on each side of us and the two kids across the road. 10 years ago, as they were all leaving school/starting Uni, none of them planned to be teachers, some didn't have a clue about future jobs, some had other plans (1 a policeman, another wanted to work in IT). Now they're all teachers. I'm sure most of them are doing a good job, but it does worry me that teaching wasn't the first choice for any of them. The police one actually did become a policeman but got thrown out after a year so he retrained as a RE teacher. One left Uni and got a lowly IT support job, but didn't get far so gave it up, went on teacher training, and is now an IT teacher. The girl across failed a year at Uni, got bumped down onto an easier course, so spent 4 years at Uni, then a year unemployed bumming around then a year doing teacher training for PE.

It's all the bloody moaning.

Teaching is weird on MNs, some of my family are teachers plus i've worked in schools and I see a very different reality to what is presented on here. Whenever i've said well my sister has time off for medical appointments, sports day etc & earns well in both of our opinion Ive been torn to shreds. Apparently there can only be one reality. Obviously the culture of the school makes a huge difference but good cultures do exist.

@Whadda 🤣

I think what people find hard to take is that everything (some) teachers moan about can be applied to a lot of other jobs:

Long hours - tick
Have to work outside your contracted hours for no extra pay - tick
Lots of different people to deal with and jobs to juggle - tick
Stressful - tick

And so on and so on. It's working life and most people do it without the bonus of a holiday every 6 weeks or so.

and teachers are paid pretty well for the 195 days they do work

Not always, I’m a peri and self employed (hourly paid) so don’t earn anything during school holidays.

everyone who is self employed doesn't earn when they don't work.